Two Adwords ad tips that just keep delivering

Here are two things that keep improving my Google Adwords clickthroughs.

1. Use Title Case for the URL in your ad.

For example:

A) www.yourdomain.com/buyyourcar

B) www.YourDomain.com/BuyYourCar

In all instances I've tested B will outpull A. In my latest test, the difference was 1.3% clickthrough rate against 2.7%. That's more than double the CTR from one small change. You HAVE to test this. Remember, higher CTR, higher ad positioning for the same price.

2. Use words that evoke emotion

I've had my CTR jump from 2.9% to 4.8% by incorporating a word like "astonishing" in my ad, especially the headline. That's just one example. These guys seldom fail to give you a CTR boost if you use them wisely. Test it and see what happens. Here's a list of emotional words you should use and test in your ads to save you the pain of dreaming them up yourself.

No-holds-barred
Breakthrough
Astonishing
Instant
Discover
Urgent
Critical
Guaranteed
High-Voltage
Unbeatable
Innovative
Phenomenal
Unique
Incredible
Enhanced
Electrifying
Super
Tactics
First
Critical
Booming
Amazingly
Appetizing
Astonishing
Revealed
Revolutionary
Secrets
Time-Sensitive
Trailblazing
Step-By-Step
Unforgettable
In-Depth
Invaluable
Ingenious
Pioneering
Proven Techniques
Irresistible
Powerful
Shocking
Spectacular
Unlimited
How-to
YOU

Many people aren't using these two simple techniques. As far as positioning is concerned, CTR is king with Adwords - your ad will get closer to the top without you having to pay more if you have a high CTR. For example, I've just been able to lower my max bid for one of my ad groups by 10c per click. My ads are still in the top 2 positions regardless thanks to my CTR, and I'm paying about 8c - 10c less per click.

You don't hear me complaining.

More Adwords tips soon, plus I'll be testing smaller PPC search engine GoClick.com to see if they're worth your time. You can still get clicks on competitive keywords for a few cents here, but the proof as they say is in the pudding. Can GoClick deliver 1) enough traffic and 2) quality traffic? Stay tuned.

Create and publish proper PDFs for free

The PDF format, if you don't know, is very popular for distributing ebooks. Unlike traditional ebooks, PDFs can be opened on both PCs and Macs using Adobe's free Acrobat Reader. They're also easy to print.

Creating PDFs for free is pretty easy - has been for a long time. All the free PDF printers I've tried, however, had one problem in common: they couldn't create PDFs with active hyperlinks.

Print a document with hyperlinks to PDF format with one of these, and none of the links in your PDF is clickable. Whoops! Having live hyperlinks in an ebook is crucial.

Here's the solution: Using the excellent free OpenOffice.org Writer, you can now publish your document to PDF straight from this word processor, with all hyperlinks active and clickable, ready to send your readers to whatever profit making locations you want them to go.

Here's how to get it going:

1. Download the OpenOffice suite from www.openoffice.org

2. Double-click the installation file to start the installation - if you already have software like Microsoft Office on your computer, you may want to only install the Writer and not the rest of the package, so check the installation options carefully.

3. Open the OpenOffice.org Writer. It can open MS Word documents, so if you already have ebook projects typed up in Word, not a problem. Alternatively, create your ebook content in the Writer.

4. When you're ready to publish, open the File menu and choose "Export To PDF".

5. Choose a location, and you'll get prompted for some PDF options. Under the Images options I like to set JPEG compression to 90% and Image Resolution to 150DPI. This way your images in the PDF still looks good, but the PDF isn't excessively large.

Video on this and one or two simple things you can do to make your PDF look nice coming later this week!

Nic